An 'Interview' With Smedley Butler

Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, one of the most colorful
officers in the Marine Corps, was one of two Marines to receive two
Congressional Medals of Honor for separate acts of outstanding
heroism. General Butler was born in 1881 and raised as a Quaker. He
was still in his teens when he was commissioned as a second
lieutenant for the war with Spain and served in the Philippines,
China, Puerto Rico, Panama, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, France, and,
after a stint as Director of Public Safety in Philadelphia, in China
again. General Butler died at the Naval Hospital in Philadelphia on
21 June 1940. At the time of his death he was the most decorated
marine in U.S. history. General Butler has had a naval destroyer, a
military base and a chapter of Veterans for Peace (the 'Smed Butts')
named for him. He is loved and quoted not only in the United States
but around the world. We are fortunate to have General Butler with
us for this "interview" conducted by Don Bacon, who founded the
Smedley Butler Society several years ago to perpetuate the memory of
this masterful maverick Marine.

General Butler is no longer with us in body but his spirit and his
popularity live on. He left us a legacy in deeds and words which we
have used to construct this imaginary interview that includes his
verbatim words and paraphrased quotations. Much of what follows
comes from General Butler's book War Is a Racket.

Q: General Butler, the United States military is currently bogged
down in Iraq. What are your thoughts?

General Butler: When our forefathers planned this government, they
saw no necessity for foreign wars, for wars that didn't concern us.
As a matter of fact, after we got our independence our army and navy
were eliminated. The Constitution states that the Congress has the
power to provide for the common defense, and has the power to raise
and support armies, but it also states that such forces can't be
funded for more than two years. It says nothing about foreign wars.
We had a militia, that is each state had a militia, but this was the
only armed force at the time and was not to be used beyond the
territorial limits of the United States. If you look into history,
you will find that during the War of 1812 a certain regiment of
militia marched northward toward Canada, but they refused to cross
the border and went home. The militia was for home defense only.
That's what our armed forces should be. Home defenders, ready and
able to defend our homes, to defend us against attack, and that's
all.

Q: What do you think of the recent militarization of US foreign
policy, with all this emphasis on force. And do you think it's fun
to shoot people as Marine Corps General Mattis once said?

General Butler: Well, I served in the Marine Corps for thirty-three
years, and of course my military philosophy evolved. As a
seventeen-year-old second lieutenant in the Boxer rebellion, and
then as a field grade officer in Central America and Haiti, I
conducted myself with a certain flair. Later, as a brigadier general
commanding troops in China again, I had a different, and I think
more successful, way of dealing with the differences of opinion that
normally occur in the course of human events. We had some interests
in China at the time, and some Americans were just hoopin' and
hollerin' for military action. I, however, felt that they all had
personal axes to grind. They were just trouble makers and not
problem solvers. If you took them seriously and tried to listen to
everything that they said, you'd be hopelessly mixed up. I felt that
the local people should settle, among themselves, their own form of
government and their own ruler. Our job was to make sure they didn't
molest our people, that's all. As long as I was commander, we
weren't going to do what we did in the Banana Wars. We weren't going
to cause a lot of violence and take over their banks and run things
the way we did in Central America, which I unfortunately had a hand
in. I felt that the millions of dollars in American capital in China
was nothing compared to the taxes Americans would have to pay for
the battleships and Marines to protect them. At the time, we were
known as "the Marines who wouldn't fight" which was fine with me. My
views haven't changed.

Q: What do you think of the current political situation in
Washington, with warmongers in control of the government and their
talk of continuous war?

General Butler: Back in my day we had similar people. In Italy
there was Benito Mussolini, who said: "Fascism . . . believes
neither in the possibility or the utility of perpetual peace . . .
War alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy." I
didn't like this fascist, or any fascist, but the US media loved
him. As you may know, I was put under arrest and threatened with
court-martial for criticizing Mussolini at the time. Later on, I
stopped the bankers' putsch against Roosevelt. See, some Wall Street
big shots wanted to topple President Roosevelt and the New Deal. I
was a life-long Republican, and they knew that I was a soldier's
general, so they approached me and wanted me to lead an army of five
hundred thousand veterans to overthrow the government. We'd do the
whole thing from Civilian Conservation Corps camps, which were
already set up. If I refused, they were going to get MacArthur.
Well, I blew the whistle on them. I always sided with the underdog
against the rich and powerful with their damnable wars, and I'd do
it again.

I spent 33 years and 4 months in active service as a member of our
country's most agile military force – the Marine Corps. I served in
all commissioned ranks from second lieutenant to Major General. And
during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle
man for big business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. In short,
I was a racketeer for capitalism. I suspected I was part of a racket
all the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all members of the military
profession I never had an original thought until I left the service.

Q: Getting back to the Iraq war, many reports say that the troops
are being treated poorly, that they have their service extended,
that their equipment and medical care are substandard and that their
lack of financial support is punitive and insulting. We don't hear
of a soldier's general these days; how did you operate differently?

General Butler: If you take care of the troops, they'll take care of
you. Some military people are just careerists, and you can't expect
civilians who never served to understand soldiers. In 1917, when I
commanded the training base at Quantico, I opposed elevating the
Corps Commandant to lieutenant general so long as the soldiers were
getting no extra reward for doing the heavy work in the trenches.
When I was sent to France, we had a situation where we were building
up to a million men but our camp was knee-deep in eternal mud and
supply requisitions weren't working. So one afternoon I marched down
to the docks with seven thousand men, confiscated fifty thousand
sections of duckboards, which were wooden slats to be used in
trenches, plus some shovels and kettles that we needed, and we
carried them back to camp. Since I too carried a duckboard up the
hill, I became known as General Duckboard. Hell, I've been called
worse names than that.

I've been called a devil-dog, the bad boy of the marines, maverick
Marine, old gimlet eye – I didn't much care for that – and, by Teddy
Roosevelt, the ideal American soldier. I liked that one.

Anyhow, years later, in 1932, when President Hoover and the Congress
had denied these brave men their bonus, these same wonderful men I
had served with in France, and twenty thousand of them gathered in
Washington, I urged them to stick it out. You've heard of the bonus
marchers? I got up on this rickety stand they had built and said:
"You hear folks call you fellows tramps, but they didn't call you
that in '17 and '18. I never saw such fine soldiers. I never saw
such discipline . . . You have as much right to lobby here as the
United States Steel Corporation." If I were around today I'd be up
on that stand again, believe me. Then General MacArthur came through
and cleaned 'em out. I have no comment on that.

Q: There has been a lot of evidence of corporate profiteering on
this current war, extending to the highest levels. What's you view?

General Butler: War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly
the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It
is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the
losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something
that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small
"inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the
benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of the
war a few people make huge fortunes. New millionaires and
billionaires are created in a war. How many of these war
millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How
many of them were wounded or killed in battle? Out of war, nations
acquire additional territory. They just take it. This newly acquired
territory is exploited by the few – the self-same few who wrung
dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the
bill. And what is this bill? This bill renders a horrible
accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered
minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and
all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations
and generations. Truly, war is a racket.

Q: What do you suggest Americans do to stop this war?

General Butler: The Government declares war. To say helplessly: As
individuals we have nothing to do with it, can't prevent it. But who
are we? Well, "we" right now are the mothers and fathers of every
able-bodied boy of military age in the United States. "We" are also
you young men of voting age and over, that they'll use for cannon
fodder. And "we" can prevent it. Now – you mothers, particularly.
The only way you can resist all this war hysteria and beating
tomtoms is by hanging onto the love you bear your boys. When you
listen to some well-worded, well-delivered speech, just remember
that it's nothing but sound. It's your boy that matters. And no
amount of sound can make up to you for the loss of your boy. After
you've heard one of those speeches and your blood's all hot and you
want to bite somebody like Hitler – go upstairs to where your boy's
asleep. . . . Look at him. Put your hand on that spot on the back of
his neck. The place you used to love to kiss when he was a baby.
Just rub it a little. You won't wake him up, he knows it's just you.
Just look at his strong, fine young body because only the best boys
are chosen for war. Look at this splendid young creature who's part
of yourself, then close your eyes for a moment and I'll tell you
what can happen . . .

Somewhere – five thousand miles from home. Night. Darkness. Cold. A
drizzling rain. The noise is terrific. All Hell has broken loose. A
star shell burst in the air. Its unearthly flare lights up the muddy
field. There's a lot of tangled rusty barbed wires out there and a
boy hanging over them – his stomach ripped out, and he's feebly
calling for help and water. His lips are white and drawn. He's in
agony.

There's your boy. The same boy who's lying in bed tonight. The same
boy who trusts you. . . . Are you going to run out on him? Are you
going to let someone beat a drum or blow a bugle and make him chase
after it? Thank God, this is a democracy and by your voice and your
vote you can save your boy. (from a 1939 broadcast)

Q: Finally, general, how do we end this war racket?

General Butler: Well, it's a racket all right. A few profit, and the
many pay. But there is a way to stop it. You can't end it by
disarmament conferences, peace parlays in Geneva or well-meaning
resolutions. It can be smashed effectively only by taking the profit
out of war.

First, before the government can recruit or conscript young people
for military service, they must conscript politicians and industry
and labor. Pay them the same that the soldiers get. They aren't
running any risk of being killed or having their bodies mangled or
their minds shattered, so why shouldn't they?

Second, hold a limited plebiscite to determine whether war should be
declared, not of all the voters, but merely those who would be
called upon to do the fighting. Why have the old president of a
munitions firm or the flat-footed head of a tank plant vote on a
venture of high profit and no risk to them?

A third step in this business of smashing the war racket is to make
certain that our military forces are truly forces for defense only.
At each session of Congress the question of naval appropriations
comes up. The swivel-chair admirals in Washington are very adroit
lobbyists. And they are smart. They don't shout: "We need a lot of
battleships to war on this nation or that nation." Oh no. First they
say that our nation is menaced by a great naval power, poised to
strike suddenly and annihilate our people. Next they cry for a
larger navy, for defense purposes only, of course. Then, they
announce maneuvers in the Pacific Ocean, and the Indian Ocean, and
the Gulf of Arabia, and any other place that's blue on the globe.
The countries that border on these waters will be pleased beyond
expression to see these warships just off their shores, just as we
would be pleased as punch to see, through the morning mist, Chinese
warships playing at war games off Los Angeles. I have proposed a
constitutional amendment to limit our military forces to home
defense purposes only. Let's pass all our suggested antiwar
legislation, let's attend all the peace and disarmament conferences,
let's have all the war protest meetings we can arrange, but if we
really want to make war impossible, then let us by all means insist
upon adding a Peace Amendment, such as the one which I have drafted,
to the United States Constitution. That's how we can smash the war
racket.

(end of interview)

Comment: Nobody ever claimed that they didn't understand General
Butler, but a lot of people didn't like to be spoken to as plainly
and as clearly as he spoke. One said: "If he was as wise in speech
as he was brave in war, he would not have lost the prestige he
deserved." Smedley Butler with lost prestige? Not on our watch. Be
sure to read General Butler's book War Is a Racket, and please do
whatever you can do to keep General Butler alive.